Chinese firms voice objection to EU, US restrictions on Chinese textiles

Chinese textile exporters in Shenzhen, a boomtown in south China's Guangdong Province, strongly objected to the restrictions announced by the European Union and the United States on textiles from China.

Shenzhen is one of China's key textile and garment export players.

Representatives from Huasi Co. Ltd, and Hairun Industrial Co. all expressed concern about the negative impact the measures might exert on their exports in the latter half of the year and vowed to closely follow the development of the situation.

The US administration announced Monday that it will launch special restrictive measures investigation on cotton trousers, cotton knit shirts and cotton or man-made fabric underwear imported from China.

On Wednesday the European Commission (EC), the European Union's executive body, also issued special guidelines on measures against textile and clothing imports from China.

When quotas on textiles expired January 1, 2005, the entire trade environment has turned for the better. The restrictive measures taken by the European Union and the United States against textiles from China mean that the country's export of textiles will remain unclear in the latter half of the year, said an executive with Shenxin Textiles Enterprise of Shenzhen.

"However, I think the actions taken by the European Union and the United States will not affect my company much because we have exported women's apparel bearing our own brands, organized exports by cooperating with American department stores, and we produce garments in the States by setting up our own companies and hiring our own designers there, therefore, our customers are fixed, so far our customers have not slashed orders," said the executive.

Zhai Xiaoping, General Manager of Huasi Co. Ltd., an exporter of silk and chemical fiber garments, complained they were completely caught by the actions of the European Union and the United States.

"At present, we have begun to take orders for the latter half of the year, but we are fully unaware how the restricted measures will be implemented, so we feel headache and lost in how to set prices for exported commodities," said Zhai.

An official surnamed Huang with the office of Hairun Industrial Co., a textile export giant in Shenzhen, said rising costs will affect the company the most and the cost of his company would skyrocket if the European Union and the United States will again implement the restrictive quotas.

Chong Quan, spokesman with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, expressed a strong objection to the restricted measures taken by the European Union and the United States and said China reserves the right to take further actions within the framework of the World Trade Organization.